Apple Original Films has acquired worldwide rights to The Dink, a new sports comedy directed by Josh Greenbaum (upcoming Spaceballs 2) and starring Jake Johnson (New shorty), on which Ben Stiller is a producer and co-star. Details as to the release plan, including whether the film will banger theaters in addition to streaming, have not yet been disclosed.
Written by Sean Clements, The Dink stars Johnson as a washed-up tennis pro who, desperate to cut a struggling club and earn his father’s respect, is compelled to break a sacred vow and do the unthinkable: play pickleball.
Others in the cast of the film include tennis champions Andy Roddick and John McEnroe, as well as Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Chloe Fineman, Aaron Chen, Patton Oswalt, Chris Parnell and Christine Taylor. Stiller and John Lesher produced for Red Hour Films, alongside Rob Paris and Mike Witherill for Rivulet Entertainment — with whom they worked on the David Gordon Green pic Nutcrackers — and Johnson. Exec producers include Rick Steele, Clements, Greenbaum, Joe Hardesty, Jonathan McCoy and Daniel Crosser.
The project reunites Apple with Stiller amid his work on Severance, the buzzy dystopian thriller series which recently landed 27 Emmy nominations — the most of any show this year — including Outstanding Drama series. As we recently told you first, Apple will also serve as the distributor for Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost, Stiller’s intergenerational documentary passion project looking at the lives of his late comedy icon parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Johnson, meanwhile, is set to star alongside Tatiana Maslany in Apple’s upcoming comedic thriller series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.
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